DC DARK: SUPERMAN VS BATMAN
by Dan Bivens
Summary: In a continuation of the DC DARK stories about Superman and Batman, both caught up in some extreme situation that pushes both over the edge, comes the Versus story many readers have been waiting for. Who will win? Batman or Superman.
1. Chapter 1

-1CHAPTER 1

"World peace", grimly grumbled a plump man whom had seen his share of the exact opposite, from the vantage point of a war correspondent, then crime correspondent, and, inevitably, editor-in-chief of one of the world's greatest newspapers: the Daily Planet.

"I never thought I'd say it", the singularly legendary Perry White said, as a red-haired, freckle-faced Jimmy Olsen, newly promoted reporter for the Planet, looked on in silent intensity. "But I damn sure miss the old days of war and crime. At least then a person understood that they were truly free! But with Superman sitting in absolute prejudicial judgment over us all..."

Jimmy understood that such a statement of truth need not be completed, as everyone 'round the world, even in those Third World countries most could scarcely spell, let alone acknowledge as existing at all, had fallen 'neath a yolk of unquestioning compliance to the man in skin-tight red, yellow, and blue.

Superman!

The Man of Steel used to be the veritable beacon of Americanized independence in a world beset by not only terrorists and run-of-the-mill criminals, but super-villains like the recently obliterated-by-Superman Lex Luthor, bald billionaire bad-guy supreme. But, since the death of Lois Lane, at the mechanized hands of that self-same bad-guy, Superman's sense of stability and true justice had rapidly degraded into a tunnel-visioned super-being who'd made the whole world cow to his one-of-a-kind powers.

Superman...no longer a purveyor of Truth, Justice, and, yes, the American Way. Superman...the flesh-and-bone God over us all.

"Maybe", Jimmy Olsen said with a quick clearing of his throat, amidst a tone as adolescent to the ear, as was his perennially youthful features to the eye, "Superman will come to his senses, Chief...er, uh, Mr. White. He's just overreacting to Lois' death…it, uh, it seems."

"Overreacting?" blurted out Perry White, as he puffed upon his trademark stogie, its white smoke forming thickening rings 'round his white-haired head. "That's putting it mildly, Olsen! In the weeks since Lois Lane was killed by the late Lex Luthor, Superman has rounded up, and summarily murdered, every bad guy from hide-and-seek terrorists of the Middle East to the corner criminal of Metropolis, and beyond. I'd be willing to bet all my journalistic awards, hangin' on the walls of my office, that the tyrant Superman has become is damn well permanent! Meaning real American freedom has died right along with all those who've openly opposed it since the beginning of Time! Since long before a certain Strange Visitor from Another Planet landed on Earth."

Stepping closer to a wide window looking out o'er downtown Metropolis, Perry chomped hard upon the smoldering cigar 'twixt his slightly yellowing teeth, whilst slipping two plumb thumbs of both hands 'neath the suspenders holding up his dress pants over a protruding-in-his-advancing years belly, and promptly pondered, just loud enough to be heard by Jimmy...

"Can't help but wonder...what's going through that super-brain of his?"


	2. Chapter 2

-1CHAPTER 2

"Superman!" shouted Lois Lane in some strange netherworld surroundings, even as a giant mechanized hand reached out for her from some indeterminable distance behind her floundering form. "Help me!"

It was at the exact instant that the mechanized hand, clearly belonging to a robot-controlling Lex Luthor, only now becoming a crystal clear visage of death, clutched, then crushed, the very life from she-whom-was-the Man of Steel's-true love...

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Suddenly sitting up in the bed in which he tried so very hard to slumber, within one of the many bedrooms of a White House that Superman had forcefully absconded from the Obamas, not long after "overreacting" to the very real world end of Lois Lane, the Man of Steel let loose a short-but-destructive burst of heat vision that fierily tore through the canopy of his bed, whilst also severely scorching the high ceiling beyond.

Fortunately for the bedroom specifically, as well as the White House in general, which had gone from the centuries-long seat of democracy in the West to the residencial heart of super-tyranny over the entire world, and its billions of hapless Human inhabitants, were spared a sudden firestorm caused by only one of a long list of super-powers brought to bear against true freedom for humanity.

Sweating profusely, Superman swiftly brought his bearings back to the present, as his super-senses also settled themselves slightly in this post-nightmare moment, then wimpered 'neath his ragged breath, "Lois. How I miss you. If only I could've been a little faster. If only my super-powers were employed a little sooner. You would still be alive. You would still be...with me."

Having finished revelling in a sadness so extreme that, if such were to happen to a mere Human, that person's mind would most assuredly snap and lead to possible suicide. Whereas, in Superman's case, such led to the outward obliteration of all major threats to peace and stability...Superman's version of peace and stability!...from international terrorists to major criminal elements, all seemingly spreading like an unchecked cancer about the planet's otherwise beautiful blue-green face.

So much so that now, weeks after the premature demise of a certain dark-haired beauty, doubling as one of the world's best investigative reporters, at the robotic behest of a certain bald billionaire super-villain, whose initials were also L-L, Superman had held the reigns of peace so tightly that even the average everyday citizen became overtly vigilant in regards to what they did and said.

For fear of being forever silenced by the Man of Steel.

"Time to oversee that which I have brought into being", said Superman, as he quickly, but not needing to do so using his super-speed, donned the skin-tight red-blue uniform, a red stylized "S" stretched taughtly across a massively muscular chest, for which he had become known the world over.

Then, with an implied "up, up, and away" that was never ever actually said by him, Superman streaked out through an always open window of the slightly scorched White House bedroom in order to overfly not only Washington, D.C., but Metropolis and the rest of the North American cities as well. Doing such at a super-speed that reduced the round-the-continent flight time to less than a single solitary hour of real time.

And although, for the most part, there was nothing happening that could be classified as criminal in any way, shape, or form, there were still situations in which ordinary people clashed violently over that which wasn't the least bit important.

Clashes which drew the decidedly unwelcome attention of a certain Man of Steel…

"Halt your hostilities!"

Such a super-shout, which rattled windows for many square miles around his momentarily hovering super-form, immediately preceded the sudden usage of super-powers to enforce a peace that extended to the sudden ceasation of even the tiniest of aggressions.

Even if such enforcement left one or more non-powered persons at least a little injured in the super-aftermath.

As Superman maintained his hour-long North American fly-over, his super-vision and super-hearing unerringly trained to detect the breaking of his super-enforced laws regarding an inhuman level of peace and stability…

A certain masked avenger of the night, having already killed the bulk of bad guys, and gals, in his own super-sized city, continued to patrol in his one-of-a-kind obsidian automobile…

Batman was on the prowl with a Bat-belt loaded with deadly implements meant to murder a criminal, even a small-time one, rather than capture them for the Gotham City Police Department. Who, coincidentally, were out to take down this darkest of Dark Knights in order to proffer their own form of peace and stability within one of the wickedest, in the ways of crime, mega-cities in the world.

A city, and its blue-and-grey protector, which could quickly come to collect the unsolicited center of attention of someone who used to be the exact opposite of the Batman…

Superman!


	3. Chapter 3

-1 CHAPTER 3

"You stupid bitch!" came the shouting statement from a man clearly caught up in a highly emotional moment legally referred to as a Domestic Disturbance. "I told you I was workin' late! Why the hell do you always have to think I'm out screwin' around?"

"Because I've seen how you look at other women!" came the equally heated retort from the female side of this, so far, fuss fight. "I've seen how you look at my girlfriends, for Christ's sake! You're nothing but a dog, you bastard!"

"Why you little...!"

Just as the sound of an open-handed slap across the face of the faded beauty carried throughout the smallish living room of the one-bedroom apartment situated on the seedier side of Gotham City...

"That's _enough_!"

A certain Batman stood before the open window, through which such as he had just entered via a Batarang and trailing line scan seconds earlier, a grim frown upon the lower half of his masked face, whilst eyes narrowed within the openings of his indigo blue, bat-eared cowl. A Bat-gloved hand already reaching for one of the many compartments of his bright-yellow Bat-belt.

"B-Batman!" exclaimed both combatants, as fear etched itself into their previously rage-filled faces. Both staring with widening eyes at the blue-grey costumed shape standing not four feet from them.

"I d-didn't m-mean to s-slap her, Batman", stammered the man whom had, moments before, escalated a fuss fight into something especially physical. "Honest! I--I j-just lost my head, that's all."

"Interesting choice of words", muttered Batman, in a harshly whispered tone that was barely loud enough to be heard by both man and woman, whom reacted as expected to such being said by a truly Dark Knight, whose deeds tended toward the deadly.

"No, _wait_--!"

Shhhh-thunk!

In the split-second following that uncompleted plea for anything remotely civil from the uncivilized Dark Knight Dealer of Death, a single bat-shaped shuriken streaked through the air and embedded itself, bloodily, into the forehead of the male half of this dueling dynamic, whom had physically assaulted his female lover of a number of low-income years. Blood dribbling down from the wound to quickly cover a frozen mask of fear belonging to the man, as he dropped dead to his knees, before falling forward onto the worn, dirty carpeting, now to be severely stained in said blood.

"_Noooooo_!"

As had happened time and time again, whenever the Batman used brutally lethal force against those who blatantly betray the letter of the law, the female member of this two-person disturbance dropped to her knees next to the very bastard whom had hit her either for the first time or the tenth…either way, thanks to the Batman, it was his last.

"Your welcome", Batman sarcastically said, as he turned, his bat-like cape fluttering slightly in his seemingly wicked wake, to exit through the self-same window through which he had entered. Then, the woman's wails of professed sadness heard in regards to her now dead-by-Batman's-gloved hand mate laying bleeding into an already dirty time-worn carpet, the Dark Knight expertly repelled down the exterior wall of the old brownstone building in order to re-enter his parked and idling Batmobile.

Once inside its cockpit-like interior, Batman stomped hard upon the accelerator with one Bat-booted foot, so as to squeal away and reach very high speeds through the heart of the lower east end of Gotham City. Seeking out yet another breaker-of-the-law that this darker-than-ever Dark Knight could dispatch with extreme prejudice.

But, unknown to the Batman, his awful actions, both in the apartment and, now, behind the wheel of the rapidly speeding Batmobile, were viewed by someone with the capability of manipulating gravitons about his hovering muscularly massive Self, as well as peering through solid walls with super-eyes…

Superman!

"One last disrupter of the peace I have instigated…then stability shall surely reach into every major city around _my _world!"


	4. Chapter 4

-1CHAPTER 4

Ka-_BOOOM_!

The virtually indestructible Batmobile was split in twain by a single bombastic blast of concentrated, tighter even than an industrial laser, heat vision of the hovering, still, Superman. Hurling the Batman from its cramped cockpit-like interior so as to land, hard, upon the paved roadway, then roll-skid for a dozen more feet, before finally rolling to a lazy halt.

"What the hell...?"

So yelled the Batman, caught up in a curious collection of emotions, seconds after being blasted out of a now wholly wrecked, something such as he had never ever considered as possible, Batmobile. Every inch of his protected-by-bullet-proof-blue-grey outfit shrieking in stinging pain, Batman stood, somewhat unsteadily, to cast his cowl-covered eyes upward to see the super-powerful figure gradually landing a mere hundred feet before him. Even the Dark Knight knew whom this brightly colored red-blue superhuman being was...

"Superman", breathed Batman, as the stinging sensation caused by roll-skidding away from a completely smashed, supposedly indestructible, Batmobile. "I was wondering how long it would take your megalomaniacal super-Self to come to _my_ city. So...I suppose we're about to battle to the death now. Bet you think such shall prove especially easy, because I am a mere Human."

"Ordinarily", said Superman as he started to slowly walk toward the Batman, his face a twisted scowl of malevolence yet to be unleashed, "I would've already killed you. Just as I have done with countless other disrupters-of-peace across the planet. But, being the omnipotent purveyor of said peace, to make things better for men, women, and children not caught up in plans hell-bent to bring about death and destruction...things can get really boring. I trust _you_ shall provide me with some excitement...before I bury you as I have done terrorists and criminals the world over."

As a smirk spread itself across the lower half of his cowl-covered face, the Batman muttered somewhat loudly, "So let's do this, you super-powered despot."

Having said such to the Man of Steel, still striding slowly toward him, the Dark Knight pulled one of the very few non-lethal items from a compartment of his Bat-belt, and hurled it hard onto the paved ground still separating himself from Superman...

Pop-BANG-_ssssssssssss_!

Even a Strange Visitor from Another Planet, with powers beyond those of mortal men, couldn't help but be temporarily stunned by the small-but-powerful flash-bang grenade, as black in color as the lethal articles carried in that self-same bright yellow Bat-belt, that had exploded directly in front of this Man of Steel.

After coughing, from the preponderance of smoke generated by such a small grenade, not to mention the sudden flash that had blinded a pair of super-eyes for the span of seconds such was designed to do, Superman simply blew away that which lingered with a quick blast of his super-breath, before noting that, not at all unexpectedly, the Batman was no longer standing a few scant feet before him.

"If that's how you want to play", Superman stated through tightly clenched teeth, as his otherwise handsome features formed a mask of restless dissatisfaction, and even outright hatred. "Then let the game begin."


	5. Chapter 5

-1CHAPTER 5

"Do you really think you can hide from me, Batman?" asked a sinisterly smirking Superman, even as his super-eyes used X-ray vision to view the Dark Knight hiding behind a nearby building. Almost immediately, the Man of Steel began to walk, powerfully, toward the Batman's cover location. "If you give up now, I promise not to hurt you. But if you put up a fight..."

"You'll use your heat vision to turn me into so much melted meat?" sardonically stated Batman, finishing off what Superman was saying, whilst walking in his still-hidden direction. "Why not give me at least a little bit of a chance to come out of this with my pride intact, Superman? Let's level the battlefield, shall we?"

Superman slowly stopped to stand some six-and-a-half feet from the hidden Dark Knight, then, after inhaling sharply and pensively, answered, "Very well. It would be anti-climatic for me to turn you into a burnt brick of fused flesh and bone, Batman. I promise to use just enough strength to maintain a status quo in regards to a fist fight between us."

Even as Batman started to step out into the open, which wasn't nearly as dramatic as he might've liked, since Superman's X-ray vision held him in plain sight the entire time, one Bat-gloved hand retrieved a fistful of razor-sharp balls meant to be hurled at an unsuspecting target. At the Man of Steel in red-blue.

"Consider it leveled, Superman", the Batman stated sinisterly, even as he tossed the fistful of razor-sharp articles right at Superman.

Though Superman was very much invulnerable to such an attack, he still instinctively lifted hands to protect his oh-so-handsome face, as the tumbling-through-the-air razor-sharp balls easily sliced through the Man of Steel's costume of red, blue, and yellow, as would have happened had they impacted with a mere Human's. Only, with Superman, there was no sliced-through skin, bringing forth both blood and pain. Just a slight destruction of the suit stretched so taughtly about a mass of muscle that far-and-away exceeded the impressively muscular stature of the Dark Knight.

"It'll take a lot more than ripping up my costume", warned a slightly pissed-off Man of Steel, as he lowered his hands to glare hard in the Batman's direction, "to stop me from beating you, and taking you to your final fate behind bars of iron and steel."

"I didn't expect it to, Superman", Batman mused in his patented harsh whisper, thus disguising his alter ego as billionaire Bruce Wayne. "But I have a lot more under my cape than that."

Ignoring such an obvious caveat from a flesh-and-bone man wearing a blue-grey caped costume, Bat-eared cowl covering fully one-half of this person's apparently attractive features, Superman charged forward with two tightly formed fists, ready to pummel this Batman the moment a traveling-at-normal-speed Man of Steel came into contact with him.

Such was when the Batman activated an unseen switch upon the rearmost section of his bright-yellow Bat-belt, causing a quiet hum of electrical power to come online scant seconds before said physical contact was, indeed, made by Superman.

"Now", murmured Batman, so as not to be easily heard by the Man of Steel, unless, of course, Superman used his super-hearing, which he had no reason to do, in order to more easily listen in, "you'll see just how long a mere Batman can stand toe-to-toe with a super-strong Superman."


	6. Conclusion

-1CONCLUSION

Before the Batman could be bombed with the first of several super-powerful punches, the secretly, in recent weeks since the rise of a Superman whom was now a quasi-compassionate tyrant, augmented-with-unseen-cybernetics within the blue-grey costume, he would now, since said cybernetics' activation scan seconds earlier, quite literally "equal the battlefield".

Something an unsuspecting, snarling in audaciousness, Man of Steel would now come to comprehend, as the Dark Knight ducked an incoming Fist of Steel a single solitary second before delivering a robotically-assisted, bombastic blow to the square chin of Superman…

"_Uhmf_!"

Which had the dual effect of, first, stunning Superman into momentary inaction and, second, sending his hulking-in-red-blue form soaring back for several feet, before crashing down, hard, onto the street. Then skidding slightly whilst tearing up pavement 'neath his super-powerful body.

"Uhnn…"

But before this Tyrant of Steel could catch his breath or reacquire any of his super-senses…

"Yiiii-_ahhhh_!"

The Batman charged ahead, slightly faster than usual, thanks, again, to the cybernetics recently installed within the blue-grey Bat-suit, in order to set about pummeling Superman with one cyber-enhanced striking fist after the other, and another and another and another…

"_Gyiiiii_!"

Whereupon the Man of Steel quickly recovered to kick the Batman in the exact opposite path, whereas the Bat-suit's bullet-and-blast-proofing would be put to the ultimate test…

"_Guhnn_!"

As the tossed away Dark Knight's muscular Self , just not as extreme as Superman's, smashed through the building's walls, behind which he had hidden immediately after Superman destroyed his one-of-a-kind, obsidian Batmobile. Leaving the man within the costume of blue-grey bruised and shaken, but not broken. Not yet.

"Is that…the best you've got!" insolently shouted Batman, as he slowly, stiffly, stood up upon Bat-booted feet, every inch of the broad of his back screaming in momentary agony. Quickly standing his ground with Bat-gloved fists held taughtly before his body, the Batman made ready for yet another of the Man of Steel's super-attacks. Hoping against hope that he, somehow, would survive, in order to return such via the Bat-suit cybernetics capable of multiplying the Dark Knight's every blow by at least a hundred times o'er normal. For such was the only way this Batman could come close to standing toe-to-toe 'gainst this Superman for very much longer.

But, just before the Man of Steel launched such 'gainst the Dark Knight, X-ray vision swiftly assessed the severity of sustained injuries in the form of hairline fractures across the rear of Batman's ribcage, as well as severely strained, even twisted, back muscles, both directly due to the powerful impact of a Caped Crime-killer's body crashing through the unforgiving cement-and-steel of said building, behind which Batman had originally hidden from someone with the ability to see straight through entire ground-floor walls. Glimpsing a peek at a momentarily motionless Dark Knight, just prior to this masked Human forcing a fight.

The Batman began to reach for a compartment containing a recently added pistol from the militarily developed, through Wayne Enterprises no less, "metal storm" armory, which would electrically fire, from its multiple barrels, far faster than the most powerful handgun, thousands of armor-piercing projectiles, which might not have penetrated the invulnerable skin of the Man of Steel, but would have, at the very least, caused sensations of actual pain. Just enough for the Dark Knight to reinitiate another attack via his cyber-assisted fists and feet.

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly…

"Do _not_ cross over into Metropolis, Batman", sternly said Superman, as he slowly lifted into the air to hover, briefly, some sixteen feet above the broken ground, "or any other city under _my_ protection and watchful eyes. If you do…I _will_ return. And, at that time, I shall not shirk my ability to quickly kill you with my heat vision. For now…Gotham City is _yours_!"

Suddenly streaking off, first at a slanted angle into the air, some ten thousand feet further up, then at a sharp right-angled, and level, flight path that would see Superman far away from Gotham in the span of seconds it would take the Batman to take in what had just happened.

"Guess I showed him", muttered Batman, as he wheezed and winched from the greater agonies now afflicting his form of he whom would have to walk to one of the Dark Knight's nearest escape tunnels 'neath his city, inevitably leading him back to his Bat-cave 'neath Wayne Manor on the outskirts of Gotham City. "Yeah…right."


End file.
